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    When Did You Decide To Trust In Jesus?

    Paeter
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    When Did You Decide To Trust In Jesus? Empty When Did You Decide To Trust In Jesus?

    Post  Paeter June 1st 2017, 9:55 am

    Just kinda curious about our community in this regard.

    I specifically didn't say "when did you become a Christian", because I'm also curious about your first memory of CHOOSING to trust Jesus, even if you'd been a believer in him for as long as you can remember.

    I grew up believing in Jesus and in his payment and forgiveness for my sin. I think sometime in late elementary might be the first time I remember renewing my belief in him. But after that it was probably a time in Jr. High and then definitely in High School when I went "all in" as it were.

    How about you?
    mikel.withers
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    Post  mikel.withers June 1st 2017, 12:23 pm

    I was just poking around to see if I've said this before, but I don't see that I have.

    I'll try to keep it short.
    I turned away from my Christian upbringing in my 20's when I realized that my life wasn't going to be all I had dreamt it would be. After looking for some other, any other, life philosophy to replace Christianity, I looked into the specific challenges that had been brought up that made me doubt.
    I found that they were, at best, spurious, and much more likely just a malicious lie.

    I had an epiphany, and while my life still isn't all it should be, it hasn't been the same since then.
    That was about 15 years ago.
    fxruizx
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    Post  fxruizx June 1st 2017, 12:35 pm

    It was about three stages for me.

    1. When I was 6 or 7 I saw the beauty/love of Jesus during making a craft in VBS
    2. At 12 I was in a Presbyterian confirmation class where I knew/accepted the "get out of hell free card" that Jesus offers us
    3. During college (early 20s), through a combination of talking with my friend Paul, adult Sunday school, and reading Lewis/Augustine, I finally believed what I already had acknowledged - that Jesus is King, He saved me, and living in Him is where to find life and freedom
    jorowi
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    When Did You Decide To Trust In Jesus? Empty Re: When Did You Decide To Trust In Jesus?

    Post  jorowi June 1st 2017, 3:21 pm

    June 24th, 1988. I was 15. It was between my freshman and sophomore year in high school. I was at a youth retreat in Houston, TX hosted by Lakewood Church when John Osteen was still the pastor. I was sitting in the front row with a friend and we intended to trip the speaker, Tommy Burchfield, when he walked by. God had other plans.
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    Post  AdamCollings June 1st 2017, 6:13 pm

    It was when I was in grade 3 of primary school (8 - 9 years of age).
    This was my first year attending a Christian school. I had been attending church for some years before that, but in that year, the teacher explained the gospel to us. I remember going home and making a decision in bed that night to trust in Jesus.

    My faith grew gradually and steadily as I got older, but took another big step forward during my university years, when I became really serious about living for and with Christ. I guess you could say that was a transition from a child's faith to an adult's faith. (an interesting statement since Jesus told us to have a child-like faith.)
    Paeter
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    Post  Paeter June 2nd 2017, 8:42 am

    Wow, you guys. What started as a question out of pure curiosity became surprisingly moving. It was really something to read your stories one after the other so close together. Thanks for that.

    And anyone else, please feel free to add!
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    Post  WhiteBoy June 8th 2017, 1:23 am

    I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home and I first trusted Jesus when I was 4 years old. As an adult I find it difficult to imagine a 4yo understanding enough about salvation to believe, but I know that I understood enough. I knew that I was a sinner, bound for hell, and that Jesus was the only Way to life. I put my trust in Him for salvation.

    When I was 8 I had a time of doubting my salvation and kind of "went through the motions just to be sure." But I know that I had truly been saved when I was 4.

    There have been other times when when I have re-dedicated my life to Him, but those are not justification but rather sanctification.

    P.S. Great thread, Paeter. I love hearing about people's salvation.
    Paeter
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    Post  Paeter June 8th 2017, 10:02 am

    WhiteBoy wrote:
    There have been other times when when I have re-dedicated my life to Him, but those are not justification but rather sanctification.

    Great distinction. Thanks for your story!
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    Post  Reed Benson June 9th 2017, 2:14 am

    This is always a hard question for me because a lot of the time, I feel like I still don't truly trust in Him. If I did, I wouldn't spend so many of my days just going through the motions (or lack of motions) that I've become accustomed to.

    Short answer:

    Probably sometime in junior high or just before.

    Long answer:

    I grew up going to a Methodist church. When I was young - probably of elementary school age - I recall praying that God would let me go to heaven even though I hadn't done anything to deserve it. I had a subconscious rationale that God worked through reverse psychology, so if I thought I deserved something, He'd take it away, but if I presented myself as pitiable, He'd bless me. That feeling still lingers, actually, no matter how much I try to expunge it; only now I know God can see through my fronting.

    I also remember imagining a scene of clouds (representing heaven) positioned in levels. God (a bright light) was on the top level. Jesus was under him, and Santa Claus was just below him. They would converse about how I was doing.

    I really started taking it all seriously in junior high, I think. That's around when I started going to youth group. In high school, I became interested in apologetics, Christian music, and Bible thumping (I was rarely, if ever, brave enough to actually argue about religion unless I had someone more confident than me on my side, but I would often make the arguments in my head to affirm myself).

    Youth group was encouraging a lot of the time, but I ended up leaving it later in my high school years because I never got the feelings that everyone else seemed to get. The others would be raising their hands and crying during worship songs, and I'd always be sitting or standing there, waiting for some sort of spiritual movement to push me to do the same, but it never came, and I didn't want to fake it. So I claimed that I wasn't getting anything out of it, but really, the spiritual fervor of everyone else was just making me feel super inadequate. Of course, I never told anyone about it.

    The one instance in my life that I can look back at and feel somewhat safe in saying, "That was God," happened while I was in a particularly depressed state. I was in the family computer room alone, updating my Xanga page. I forget the exact sentiment, but I was typing something about feeling separated from God. The TV was on in the room, airing an episode of All in the Family on TV Land, but I wasn't paying any attention to it until Archie Bunker suddenly said, "God don't make mistakes, that's how he got to be God!" Those words broke through my haze like high beams at night - I wasn't a mistake! I didn't publish my post that night. If I see God on the other side and He says that He wasn't talking to me in that instance, I'll be shocked.

    I've had ups and downs in faith since then. I still don't have strong emotional connections to God (or much of anything, really). I'm kind of a robot, and I don't know what to do about it. But I know that if Jesus isn't the truth, nothing matters. I just need to get the knowledge of what He's truly done for me deep down into my soul and/or spirit so that it influences everything else about me.

    Sorry for the length. I guess I had a lot I needed to get out.
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    Post  mikel.withers June 9th 2017, 7:46 am

    Reed-
    Very cool story, thanks for sharing.
    I can relate to a lot of that. I remember bemusedly grinning as people around me reacted much more strongly to worship songs than I did. ...do. Am I missing something? Should I raise my hands and clap and get that look on my face? Fake it 'til I make it? Maybe I'm restricting the Spirit by being non-participatory? Why don't I feel like other people do? ...are they just play-acting?

    I *think* I've come to the conclusion that God works through each of us in a way most suited to our needs. I'm pretty sure that no matter how I feel about something, if I don't know it, I'm not going to be sold on it. Other people don't seem to need to know anything about a topic as long as they feel a certain way about it. -should both of us be reached in the same way?

    Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" and I can take some comfort in the fact that while I don't "feel" love as I feel like I should, I (not as often as I should) keep His commandments. I like to think that the reverse of "love me=keep commandments", that is "keep commandments=love me", also holds true. Or, as DC Talk told us "Luv is a verb".
    Paeter
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    Post  Paeter June 9th 2017, 8:53 am

    Really great story, Reed. I can relate to much of that, too.

    For me, I'm still not very demonstrative in corporate worship in the clapping/hand-raising kind of way. And my more frequent emotional involvement in worship has only come in the last 5-10 years, as life has finally begun to present difficulties I'm not strong enough for. So I'm just more emotionally tender in general.

    I think our relationship with God should just be real. More real than we are with anyone else. Unless you suspect there is some internal emotional problems to look into, I think you might just be less emotional than some other folks. Nothing wrong with that.

    I also connect with how your trust in Jesus kind of happened in "stages", as opposed to one singular moment. That was kind of the case for me, and I definitely relate to not truly and fully trusting Jesus even today. (As a side note, I was chiefly asking about that first "transactional" moment of trust, where a person says "I believe this. Jesus, I trust you to take care of my sin problem.")

    Thanks so much for sharing your story. A lot of stuff that many of us can probably relate to and reflect on.

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